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Palestine
Palestine is a partially-recognized country located in the Levant region of the Middle East. As a region, Palestine includes both the Palestinian territories and Israel, but the modern-day country is confined to the territories of West Bank and the Gaza Strip. The country claims that Jerusalem is its capital, but as it only controls East Jerusalem, its de facto capital is Ramallah. History Palestine is the term given to the territories that are inhabited by Palestinians and governed by the Palestine Liberation Organization separately from Israel. The origins of Palestine lie in 1948, when the independence of Israel led to the former Mandatory Palestine region being divided into Jewish and Arab states. Many Palestinians fled to refugee camps in neighboring countries or to the lands occupied by Egypt (now the Gaza Strip) and Jordan (now the West Bank). The foreign powers ruled over the lands unti 1967, when Israel defeated Egypt and occupied Gaza, while they also took over Jerusalem from Jordan and forced them out of the West Bank. Israeli troops were stationed in both regions, where they would remain for several more decades. Arab countries and Palestinians called the Israeli presence in their homeland an "illegal occupation", although the people of Israel saw it as reclaiming their old homes from which they were forced by the Arabs and Babylonians thousands of years before. The people of Palestine rose up against Israel in many ways, with terrorism being common as the PLO launched several attacks against Israeli civilians from its formation in 1964 until the Oslo Accords of 1993. In 1993, Israel agreed to give Palestine autonomy, and the two states recognized each other as independent. Unfortunately, the PLO was unable to contain more radical Palestinians such as the leaders of Hamas and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, and both Hamas and the PIJ sought to wage jihad and continue terrorist attacks against Israel. Even the Fatah-affiliated al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades carried out terrorist attacks against Israel, and during the 1990s and 2000s, the Palestinians launched deadly uprisings in the First Intifada and Second Intifada. Terrorist attacks became a daily event during these periods of Israeli history, and in 2015 violence started up again in the "Knife Intifada" following disputes over the ownership of Temple Mount. Over the years, Palestine was elevated from the Palestinian Authority to the "State of Palestine", and Mahmoud Abbas was its president. Although Palestine was nominally an ally of Israel in putting down the terrorist groups, most of the Arabs in the West Bank and Gaza Strip were anti-Israeli, and Abbas was himself accused of inciting violence, as he was a known strong anti-Semite. Since 1948, there has been no peace between Israel and the Palestinians, who were eventually divided into the Fatah-controlled West Bank and the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip. Most Arab countries and a few Western countries recognize Palestine as a country, but the United States, Israel, and many of their allies refuse to recognize Palestinian independence. Gallery Palestine population 1947.png|Population in 1947 Category:Nations Category:Republics